The universalism of Josef Albers' "Homage to the Square" is examined in Nude, No. 2. It also identifies the body as a space of negotiation located between cultures. Melanin and speech are both physical attributes of the body. Each
piece in the series is a linguistic composition loaded with social tension. The underpainting of these works is a
pigmented glue that represents a tone that is different from that on the surface. Bleeding into the top layers, this root
level of the picture's composition symbolically acknowledges difference. Playing with the relationship of simultaneous perceptions, these pieces activate a dense system of human struggle that is orchestrated by language, regardless of one's skin tone. As an Israeli-American, my perception of space is tempered with an awareness how arbitrary borders are.Employing modes of authorship such as storytelling and multilinguialism, I manipulate the biographical predisposition of a viewerʼs associations (which are dynamic). The work enters spaces of meaning determined by a global network and the negotiation of identity that occurs when confronted by multiple systems.
Transliterations: Amharic -- Holi / Arabic -- Abiad / English -- White / German -- Weiss
Hebrew -- Lavan / Chinese -- Bái / Japanese -- Shiro / Latin -- Niveus / Russian -- Bhehley
